Iran's Election Commission: State Broadcaster's Coverage of Candidates not Balanced

Presidential nominee Mostafa HashemiTeba speaking with reporters after his first appearance in TV.

Iran's election supervisory body issued a statement on Wednesday saying that the country's state broadcaster, Seda va Sima, is not providing fair and equal coverage to all six candidates in the presidential race.

The main target of this criticism are programs to introduce the profiles of the candidates, which are broadcast by the various television and radio channels run by the state controlled institution.

The director of Seda va Sima is appointed by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the broadcaster is considered to be under his control, although other organs also have a supervisory role.

The election supervisory body says that the broadcaster was notified numerous times about the shortcomings of its programs but failed to make changes. As a result, it has asked the broadcaster to stop the programs in question and take corrective steps.

Recently, the pro-reformist Sharq newspaper charged that the hard-line candidate Ebrahim Raisi has been receiving preferential treatment by the state broadcaster.